Human In The House
by bemj11
Summary: Nessie POV. An accident during a school project brings an injured human into the Cullen household, and leads Nessie to learn a few things about her Uncle Jasper. Three Chapters. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

I don't know how it happened, I really don't. I didn't _intend_ to bring a human home with me, I really didn't. Especially not one that was bleeding and injured.

Her name was Lydia. She was in my science class, and we had been assigned to work as partners for a nature scavenger hunt. There was plenty of nature near my house, and it would be close enough in case something should happen, so I had suggested we go there, and it was settled.

So we had been wondering around this Saturday, looking for all sorts of leaves and flowers and plants and such. And it had been going well. We had actually been having fun.

Then suddenly she slipped, and fell down the slope, tumbling through the fallen branches and undergrowth. I heard her yell as she hit the ground, and suddenly the smell of blood permeated the air.

I moved to fast to reach her, but Lydia never even noticed. She looked up at me with wide blue eyes, clutching her ankle and biting her lip. She was covered in scratches and bruises, and had a gash in her arm. Her ankle also looked funny.

I tried not to panic. I tried to ignore the smell of blood. I tried to decide what to do.

Jacob appeared out of the woods, as if on cue. As if he had been tailing us, which he had, just in case something were to happen. I had been annoyed about that earlier, but now I was glad.

I ran to him, and buried my head in his chest. He patted my head reassuringly and led me over to Lydia. He knelt down slowly to look at her.

"I'm Jacob Black." He told her calmly, trying not to frighten her even more. He looked her over. "A few scratches, bruises, nothing too bad so far. You'll want to get that cut on your arm taken care of." He frowned when he saw her ankle. "Can you get her home?" He asked me.

"I think so." I said uncertainly.

"I'll go get Carlisle." Grandpa would be at the hospital, working. I nodded, and he took off at a run.

"Come on." I said to Lydia. "I'll help you up." We got her standing on one foot, though she had to lean on me to manage. We made our way slowly back home, she trying to brave, me trying to ignore the blood.

Uncle Jasper met us about half a mile from the house. He didn't say w word, merely nodded and stepped forward to pick Lydia up and carry her the rest of the way in arms.

I could see her relax and knew he was trying to keep her calm. He was trying to keep me calm, too. He must have felt us coming.

I followed them inside and into the living room, where he carefully set her down on the couch. He then wordlessly stalked upstairs.

Lydia watched me timidly. "Who was that?" She asked, sounding slightly awed. Uncle Jasper had opted not to go to school this time around, for whatever reason. He was playing as Grandpa's younger brother, just recently come to stay with us. Consequently, Lydia had never met him before.

"That's Uncle Jazzy." I replied. That was one thing about his current role. I didn't have to worry about accidently calling him Uncle in public. It was hard enough with Mom and Dad and Grandpa and Grandma. "Jasper." I clarified, noting her bemused expression. "He's my uncle."

He reentered the room, carrying what looked like the first aid kit from Grandpa's office, though I never understood why he had one there. Uncle Jasper handed it to me. I just looked at it, clueless.

His cell phone rang, and Lydia and I jumped as he pulled it out and answered it. "Hello?" He said softly, walking away from us. "Yes, I'm here. No, I didn't look closely. She was having trouble walking. I had to carry her the last half mile. I don't know, Carlisle. If you think…" He trailed off, listening for a minute. "Yeah, sure. Okay then. No, it's fine. See you then." He hung up and slid the phone back into his pocket and then turned to look at me.

He was tense, but I supposed that was due to the fact that Lydia was still bleeding. He was frowning as he took the first aid kit from me.

"Carlisle's going to be a little late." He said to Lydia, tersely. "We're going to see what we can do for you in the meantime." The words should have been calming, soothing, but his tone of voice was sharp, angry. He began looking at Lydia, taking care of her cuts and scratches, cleansing them and bandaging the worst of them before focusing on the gash in her arm.

He worked quickly and efficiently, without a word. I couldn't shake the feeling that he was angry with me for bringing the bloody, injured human into our home. But what else could I have done?

He took one look at her ankle and sighed. "I'm not a doctor, so we're going to leave that alone for now." He said, his words still light yet failing to match the dark tone in his voice. It was unsettling. "But Carlisle suggested you might be hungry, or thirsty, and said I should feed you." He went on, moving sharply towards the kitchen.

"Is he okay?" Lydia asked nervously.

"Oh sure," I lied, "he's a bit different at first, but nice once you get to know him. I'm just going to check and make sure he's alright in there." I said, darting into the kitchen.

"I'm sorry." I murmured, softly enough that Lydia wouldn't hear me from the other room.

"For what?" Came Uncle Jasper's tense reply.

"Bringing her here."

"You couldn't have just left her in the forest, Nessie. You did the right thing." He said, rifling through the fridge.

I wasn't convinced. "Then why are you mad?" I asked.

"I'm not mad." He replied quickly. I stepped forward and rested my hand lightly on his cheek, showing him that I _had_ seen that he was upset. He sighed. "I'm not mad at _you_, Nessie. Or her. I'm fine."

I wondered what was wrong, then, but I could tell that as far as he was concerned, this conversation was over. I was miffed, and offended, but he ignored it, though I knew he could tell.

I was in the midst of convincing Lydia to eat, and that I wasn't hungry, when Carlisle arrived home.

Uncle Jasper was out the door as soon as he saw that Carlisle had returned.

Disclaimer: This stuff isn't mine.


	2. Chapter 2

"Auntie Alice?" I asked timidly. "Where's Uncle Jazzy?" Aunt Alice looked up from the book she was reading and greeted me with a smile.

"He went hunting, Nessie." She told me.

"Didn't you go together the other day?" I wondered.

"Well, yes." She replied hesitantly. "We did."

It was just as well. If Uncle Jasper wouldn't talk to me, maybe Aunt Alice would. I joined her on the bed.

"Is Uncle Jazzy mad at me?" I asked.

Aunt Alice looked at me thoughtfully. "What do you think?"

"He said he wasn't." I mumbled, my eyes on my feet. "But he was mad, and upset, and snappish."

"But not at you." Aunt Alice persisted.

"Lydia?" I asked. Had he been mad at her?

Aunt Alice sighed. "No." She closed her book and set it aside. "He wasn't mad at her, or Carlisle either, for that matter."

I frowned. "Then who was he mad at?"

"Frustrated would be more accurate." Aunt Alice replied absently. "But he was upset with himself, Nessie."

I was shocked. "But why?"

"Because it's harder for Jasper to be around blood than it is for the rest of us. It's harder for him not to lose control."

I stared at her. "I know she smelled good. It was very distracting. But-"

"But for Jasper it was almost painful to resist." The was she said almost made me think that maybe it actually _had _been painful for him. "That's why he went hunting."

"But why is it hard?" I asked her. It wasn't that hard for me, or Aunt Alice, or Mom, and Grandpa worked in the hospital and had no problems with it at all.

Aunt Alice smiled at me somewhat sadly. "To understand that, you need to know about Jasper's past."

"Do you think I'm ready?" I asked, excited. Dad had insisted on waiting to tell me certain things, like how Uncle Jasper and Aunt Rosie and Aunt Alice had become vampires.

Aunt Alice nodded, but her eyes were grim. "It's not a nice story." She warned me. "But I think you need to hear it now. You can talk to him when he gets back."

"But you're sure he wasn't mad at me?" I asked again. I wanted to be sure, especially if I was going to be asking about his past.

Alice laughed. "I'm not sure it's even possible for him to be mad at you, Nessie." I laughed along with her, though I still wasn't sure.

Diclaimer: Twilight does not belong to me, nor am I under the delusion that it does.


	3. Chapter 3

"Uncle Jazzy?" I asked later, when he had returned.

"Yes, Nessie?" He replied easily. He wasn't upset anymore, I realized. I hugged him happily. I hated when he felt bad. It just wasn't right. "What was that for?" He asked, chuckling.

I giggled in reply. "You're better. You're happy again."

"Oh." Uncle Jasper said. "I didn't mean to worry you. I'm sorry, Nessie." He was more solemn now, but still pretty happy. He was usually pretty happy here with us.

"It's okay." I told him. "I just don't like seeing you upset." I waited a few seconds, then, "So." I said.

He raised an eyebrow, wary. "So?" He returned.

"Will you take me for a walk?" I asked sweetly.

"Certainly." He agreed, and led me outside, where we would have some privacy. "Well?" he asked when we finally stopped.

"Auntie Alice said I could ask you something." His good mood faded.

"Yes?" He asked softly.

"She said I could ask you about your past." I explained. "So, what about your past, Uncle Jazzy?"

"It's a long story, Nessie." He replied. "And not a very nice one either."

"That's what Auntie Alice said. I want to hear it." I insisted.

"Very well." He said, taking a deep breath. "You have just as much right to know as the others." He was silent for a minute, thinking. Like the time he was telling me about the Civil War for history class.

"You know that as a human I served during the Civil War in the Confederate Army. I was Major Jasper Whitlock, twenty years old, though I had claimed I was older, when I was bitten. When I met her." He paused, and I knew better than to interrupt. He was remembering all this, from long ago.

He continued after a few seconds. "I had been chosen by a vampire name Maria. I had been chosen for my military experience. I was chosen to help train the Newborns that made up a large part of our coven, our army. We were fighting other covens, fighting for control of the land and the people on it. So I would train the Newborns to fight, and when they had outgrown their usefulness, I would destroy them. They would fight, they would try to defend themselves, try to kill me first, but in the end they would all die. _That_ is where the scars came from, Nessie."

He hated the scars, I knew. Personally, I kind of liked them. They told me he could fight, and would, if any of us needed protecting. That we were safe with him here.

"I spent the first part of my existence as a vampire this way. I lived in an atmosphere of constant hatred, violence, and bloodlust. We-I fed on the blood of humans. I killed so many humans during that time. And even after I left Maria's coven, I still fed on human blood. I didn't know there was another way.

"I wandered, often alone, without reason, without any meaning to my life. I was depressed, I had been so for most of that existence. I often wished I were dead." He fell silent, lost in his memories.

"Then you met Auntie Alice?" I broke the silence, unable to bear the thought of him so sad.

"Then I met Alice." He agreed with a smile. "And you've heard that story. Often." It was one of my favorites. It had been a bedtime story when I was still little, many times the only one that would get me in bed.

"I love it." I replied brightly, glad he was happy again. Aunt Alice made him happy.

He studied me for a moment. "So, does this have anything to do with what happened yesterday? He asked.

"Aunt Alice said you were mad at yourself." I admitted.

He smiled. "Not exactly. Just frustrated. I came so close to losing control today. I haven't been that close in a long time."

"But why were you upset?" I demanded. "We can't help it if it smells good."

"Because," he replied patiently, "after all this time, it's still so hard for me to resist, Nessie. Because it's harder for me than for the rest of the family, and I don't think that's ever going to change. Because it would be so easy to slip, and because it has been that easy."

"But you fight harder." I argued. "That makes you want it more." He stared at me.

"What?" I asked nervously.

"You may be right." He said softly.

"Sure I am." I agreed. "And you are getting better, aren't you?"

He grinned. "I suppose I am. When your mom-" He broke off abruptly.

"Aw, come on." I pleaded. "When Mom what, Uncle Jazzy? When Mom what? Please?" I knew that out of all my relatives, Uncle Jasper was one of the two most likely to give in, three if you counted Jacob. But Jacob was a given, he couldn't refuse me. Uncle Jasper and Grandpa, on the other hand, were almost as bad. There wasn't much either would refuse me.

Uncle Jasper sighed and gave in. "When your mom was still human, Alice decided to throw her a birthday party. It was amazing. You know how Alice is." I nodded. Extravagant. He continued. "We got her presents, of course. Emmett and Rosalie and I got her a stereo for her truck; Emmett installed it while she unwrapped the empty box so she couldn't return it. She hated being given things." The smile faded. "Then she gave herself a paper cut opening the one from Alice and Edward. She was so clumsy as a human. Anyway, I lost it. Edward was between us, or I would have attacked her then and there. I tried anyway. It turned into this huge fiasco."

I stared at him in shock. "You tried to eat my Mom?" I asked.

"Yeah." He replied. "It used to be that bad for me. One drop of blood, and I went mad. I had no control. But you're right, Nessie. It _has_ gotten easier." His good mood was back again as he thought about that.

I smiled at him happily. "Thanks for telling me this." I said.

Uncle Jasper shrugged. "Well, you got the edited version, sorry to say, but Edward's going to kill me for this as it is. He doesn't need any extra fuel."

I was disappointed, a little, though I knew he was right about Dad. "When do I get the whole story, then?" I asked.

He looked surprised. "Alice and Carlisle are the only other ones who have heard it. Do you really want it?" I nodded firmly. He studied me for a moment, perhaps testing my resolve. "Okay then." He said at last. "After you're married. That was Jacob can kill me. It'll probably be less painful."

I blinked, then frowned. "You know about that, huh?" He knew about me and Jacob then.

He laughed. "Of course." Was all he said. "Ask me then." He said, serious again.

"Okay." I said.

I would, too.

Diclaimer: Twilight does not belong to me, nor am I under the delusion that it does.


End file.
